ASTRONOMY CLUB OF TULSA

ACT, Inc. has been meeting continuously
since 1937 and was incorporated in 1986. It is a nonprofit; tax
deductible organization dedicated to promoting, to the public, the art
of viewing and the scientific aspect of astronomy.

What

The Astronomy Club of Tulsa Club

When*

Friday, 11 April, 2003 at
7:30 PM

Where

Room M1 inside Keplinger Hall, the
Science & Engineering Building at TU. Enter the parking lot on the
East Side of Keplinger Hall from Harvard and 5th Street. This will take
you directly toward the staircase to enter the building. Room M1 is the
first room on the left.

*Note: If Tulsa Public Schools are
closed due to weather,the
ACT meeting will also be cancelled.

President’s Message

Denny Mishler

We are very
fortunate to have Dr. Richard Marston, Professor of Geology at
Oklahoma State University speak to us at our April 11th meeting. Dr.
Marston is also a Research Scientist at the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for
Space and Planetary Sciences. He specializes in studying landforms on Mars,
especially those that are created by running water, ice, mass movement and
wind. "Water on Mars", the topic of Dr. Marston's
presentation to the Astronomy Club of Tulsa, is a very active area of
planetary research, with new developments happening at a quickening pace.
NASA will be exploring Mars with orbiters, landers and rovers in the next
few years, so this will be a great opportunity for club members to get an up
to date background on present research, and to better understand new
developments as they occur. Dr. Marston will be returning from
research in the Himalayas Mountains shortly before our meeting, so we may
find a connection between that exciting area of our planet and landforms on
Mars. Did you know that Mars has a canyon much larger than the Grand Canyon
and several mountains that tower over Mount Everest? Join us as we learn
about the Red Planet before it makes it's close approach to Earth this
summer.

We will be having
dinner with our guest before the meeting but we will have to find a new
restaurant as the Luby's on 15th street will be closed (as of April 3rd).
The news of Luby's closing just broke on the day I am writing this message
so I can't give you the new location here, but we will find another
restaurant and send out an email and post the time and location on our web
site. Anyone without computer access can call me or another officer after
April 7th to find out the location. Officers and their phone numbers are
listed on the back cover of the newsletter. We will also have refreshments
following the meeting so please feel free to add to the goodies table.

As we get closer to
our MSRAL (Mid States Region of the Astronomical League) Convention,
our chairman John Land will need volunteers to assist with the many
things that will go into making our convention a success. Please give John a
call or email to discuss how you can help. Thank you in advance for your
help.Clear skies, Denny Mishler

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: We will need at least 3 persons with
scopes to help with the Collinsville Elementary School event North West of
the Collinsville School. Please let me know if you can help with this event,
and I will send you directions to the location. If you do not have a scope
to bring, that is OK. Just let me know, and you can operate one of the
several club "house scopes." Also, bring a step stool or small
ladder for the short kids. It is not unusual for 200 people to show up for
this event. They always get a grant and give us money!

Tentatively scheduled dates below are bracketed with
question marks. The number of persons expected is in parenthesis.

EVENTS AT RMCC OBSERVATORY:

MAY

05-02-03 Fri 07:45 Club Star Party
? 05-03-03 Sat 07:45 Back up for 05/02 ?
05-08-03 Thu 07:45 BA Home School Group 1 (30)
05-15-03 Thu 07:45 BA Home School Group 2 (30)
05-30-03 Fri 07:45 Club Star Party
? 05-31-03 Sat 07:45 Back up for 05/30 ?

In the past 6 months I
have purchased 4 telescopes, not sure of what scope or scopes would be best
suited for my area and size. The 2 scopes I am keeping are a 6" Skyquest
dobson and a 127mm Starmax, both from Orion. The two I am selling is a 10"
Skyquest dobson, only about 4 months old, like new, and comes with a tube case.
Cost $753.85 with shipping, asking $500.00. I have a 4.5 short tube reflector,
eq, and a small homemade dobson mount comes with it for $100.00. If anyone is
interested, call Bartlesville at 918-333-6114 for details or leave message if I
am away. Thanks, Don

Astroland Tidbits

by John Land

Plans are coming along well for the MidStates Astronomical
League convention here in Tulsa on Friday June 20 to Sunday June 22. We have
a great line of guest speakers already signed up you'll not want to miss.
Several vendors have already agreed to support our event by sending some great
door prizes. Enclosed in your March newsletter was an information flyer and
registration form. Feel free to make copies and give them to your friends. Be
sure to keep a copy of the registration form so you can SIGN UP EARLY! If
possible let us know if you plan to come at our April 11 meeting and get your
registration in by the May 16 meeting or earlier. If you don't have a
registration form they are available at the web site or you may call John
Land to have one mailed to you. Craig Davis, our vice president, will
be handling the registration forms. Additional Information about the convention
and its sponsors are available on our convention website at http://www.astrotulsa.com/msral2003/2003MSRAL.htm.
You can also reach the MSRAL web page from our club page. www.AstroTulsa.com

You'll want to arrive early for this months meeting. Jupiter,
Saturn and the moon will be easily visible and hopefully someone will have a
telescope or two handy for viewing. Guests at our March meeting enjoyed their
first views of these grand celestial objects.

The May issue of Sky and Telescope on page 10 has an
article about a flash on the moon that was photographed by Tulsa amateur Dr.
Leon Stuart in 1953. The Astronomy Club of Tulsa and five of our members are
also mentioned.

You may make Renewals and changes at any club meeting or mail
a check to Astronomy Club of Tulsa - 25209 E 62nd St - Broken Arrow, OK 74014.
Note: Sending your check to the club mailbox may delay processing several
weeks. Club Membership: Adults $25 and Students $15 per year. Check your mailing
label to see when your club dues expire. Renewal forms are available on the club
Internet site.

Magazine Subscriptions: You can get substantial discounts
for Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazine by ordering
thorough the Astronomy Club. If your magazines are coming up for renewal, try to
save the mailing label or renewal form you get in the mail.

The clouds cleared and the TUVA Messier Marathon turned
out to be the best marathon in many years. It was a bit breezy and cold but
after you put on several layers of clothing and started observing the cold
didn't really bother you. We had a great turn out and Ron and Maura
Woods was once again great host as they went out of their way to make sure
everyone was having a great time. The whole day started at 91st/Memorial where
several Astronomy Club of Tulsa members met to caravan to the TUVA site outside
of Council Hill. Denny Mishler, Rod Gallagher, Gerry Andries,
Teresa Kincannon, Steve Chapman, and I began our journey. After a
couple of stops to re-group we finally arrived at TUVA. Ron remarked that
when he saw me leading the caravan of vehicles that it reminded him of the old
days of the marathon and he knew this was going to be a good night. Maura
had already starting setting up a feast in the TUVA club building, which was
more than all of us could eat. We determined that the best location to set up
for observing would be on the south side of the TUVA building to block the wind.
We started setting our equipment and more people began to show up including long
time ACT members but never around for meetings or activities because of their
schedule, Phil and Linda Jones. It was great seeing and visiting
with them again. Several TUVA members started showing up including photographer Gerald
Miller, Thomas McNicholas, and Chris and Mary Whitney.
You may have seen some of Gerald's work on the TUVA website or ours.
Later he would take some photos of all the activity and you can see these at www.tuvaclub.org.
KC Lobrecht showed up later with lots of goodies for everyone to add to Maura's
feast. I think she takes ingredients from the stars and makes those cookies,
cakes, and casseroles to where they are heavenly. After everything was set up we
all came in to chow down on Maura's, KC's and other TUVA and ACT
member's goodies. During this time, Denny showed his Solar Eclipse video
from Baja and Gerald Miller talked about the new expansion observatory he
is building at TUVA North. By the time we had finished, other observers began
arriving including Chris Brown, Ted and Steve Bullinger. We
went back out and viewed old Sol and it was loaded with sunspots, more than I
have seen in quite awhile. Rod set his scope on Jupiter even though it
was still pretty light. The red spot was very prevalent. Finally the sun set and
darkness started creeping upon us. Who would be the first person to capture an M
object and what would it be? I handed out a Messier Marathon Sequence list for
those wanting it but we decided that we would jump over to one object that was
going to be easy to locate because of its near vicinity of Jupiter. Rod found
it first M44 the beehive cluster right by Jupiter. Everyone else followed. The
2003 Messier Marathon had begun. We went back to the list and tried for no. 1
and 2 the elusive M74 and M77. After spending what seemed a lifetime, those two
were not going to cooperate and we would miss them again this year. Rod
found the next object M31 and the race was on. Through the night it was an
exciting time, looking for objects and visiting with everyone. During the night Rod
located the asteroid, Vesta and for many it was the first time they had observed
an asteroid. There weren't as many meteors as you would expect to see, but some
of us did see one or two. The neighboring cows kept mooing all night and were
probably wondering what those silly humans were doing with those cannons. As the
evening got later several people started dropping out. Rod and I were
neck and neck up until about midnight, but after Rod breezed through the
galaxies in Virgo I was left in the dust. I wanted to try for the Omega
Centaurus globular so around 2a.m. I used binoculars and panned the southern
horizon in the general area where the globular should be and low and behold
there it was, very large but dim. Most everyone had gone into the building by
4a.m. and Rod and I were the only ones still observing M-object's.
Twilight was creeping upon us and it didn't look like we were going to get those
last few. Rod found the bright small globular M15 through the trees
around 4:30a.m. It was allot brighter than I had expected and this object would
be the last M object that I would locate. My final total came to 88, which I
considered good, but Rod surpassed all, finding 104 and winning this
year's David Stine Award. I don't have totals from everyone, but Denny
found 38 and Steve Chapman found 25. It was a great night for everyone
and allot of fun. A thousand "Thank you" to Ron and Maura
for hosting this annual Messier Marathon, and we will be looking forward to next
year's marathon. TUVA would like to thank all the Astronomy Club of Tulsa
members who participated and their congratulations to Rod on winning the 2003
David Stine Award.

Tuesday night April 15 there is going to be an observing
session for the Collinsville school kids. I attended this last year and
it was a very enlightening experience. If you have the chance come and help out
and show the wonders of the universe to these kids and parents. Saturn, Jupiter
and the moon will be a highlight for these people and you will hear comments
like, “OK where do you have the Saturn picture located inside your scope?”.
It just amazes people when they actually see Saturn and its rings, or Jupiter's
cloud bands, or galaxy's like ours thousands of light years away, or seeing
through a telescope without a drive how fast the earth moves, or panning the
craters on the moon and pretending you are an astronaut getting ready to land on
its surface. These are things that you can share with the non-astronomer and get
those kids started on their way to a world of astronomy. If you would like to
have that experience and help out, contact Gerry Andries for details and
directions.

There are several telescopic comets viewable in April. C/2002
Y1 (Juels-Holvorcem) can be seen very low in the morning sky during twilight in
Pegasus. It is around 6th Mg. now, but because of its location will still be
difficult to see.

Comet C/2001 RX14 (LINEAR) is your best bet as it is visible
high in Leo Minor from dusk to 3a.m. It is an 11th Mg. comet but with good
eyesight and charts it isn't that hard to locate. Some suggestions for seeing
the comet come from Comet Chasing Newsletter. You need a dark site. Look for
something similar to an elliptical galaxy. If you have good charts find and
match the stars you see in your widest field eyepiece in order to locate the
position of the comet. When you know it should be near the matched stars you
have found in your scope, concentrate on that area. It may not appear
immediately as it will be little more than a soft round glow. Use averted vision
and it should pop out at you.

Beginning next month the comet we have been hearing a lot
about, C/2002 07 (LINEAR) should start becoming visible at 11-12th Mg. This
comet is projected to possibly reach 3rd Mg. or better by next spring. This one
will be one to watch as it slowly progresses over the year.

That's it from my corner this month; keep your eyes upward
and clear skies for everyone.

Meteoroid Leaves Lasting
Impression

Bill Byrns
Daily Journal
March 30, 2003

The hunt continues for
fragments of the meteoroid that blazed over The Journal area Wednesday night.

So far 20 large
meteorites and around 50 smaller fragments have been found according to Dr James
Schwade of Kankakee.

Experts believe the
meteoroid may have been the size of a Volkswagen "Bug" when it hit the
atmosphere and possibly the size of a television set when it broke apart.

Schwade believes there
may well be hundreds of pieces yet to be found. "It will take weeks before
we know better."

Still he believes this
could end up being the largest meteorite ever to hit Illinois. More fragments
however will have to be found to stake that claim.

"It is only the
ninth meteorite ever found in Illinois," Schwade said.

The first and largest
fell in 1927 at Tilden, in downstate Randolph County just north of Sparta.

According to witnesses,
the Tilden meteor broke up in a series of three explosions while it was still
high in the air. The explosions rattled windows and dishes in the town. Only
three pieces -- fragments weighing 9, 46 and 110 pounds -- have ever been found.

Schwade believes the
Park Forest meteor may well have passed southwest of Kankakee before exploding
in the air and showering fragments across Park Forest, Matteson and Olympia
Fields.

Paul Sipiera, a
professor of geology and astronomy at Harper College in Palatine, believes the
debris field covers a path about 80 miles long by 20 miles wide from north of
Bloomington to Chicago's south side and possibly part of northwestern Indiana.

Schwade has spent the
past few days mapping where the meteorites hit and attempting to determine the
size of the original meteor[oid].

Friday and Saturday he
was attempting to confirm reports of meteorites landing in Beecher which would
mark the southern extent of the shower.

Chris and Pauline
Zeilenga of Beecher were watching TV around midnight when "The sky lit up
completely from horizon to horizon. We've seen lightning storms, but this was
nothing like that," he said.

"A minute or so
later the house started rumbling and we heard all these tiny particles hitting
the house."

Outside his home,
Zeilenga found tiny gray and black pieces of stone. He didn't realize their
origin until he heard people talking about meteorites as he rode the morning
train to work in Chicago. "When I heard that I thought, 'That's what it
was!' ''

Schwade said the
largest specimen found so jar "weighed 7 1/2 pounds and was found two
blocks north of Lincoln Highway and two blocks west of Western Avenue just
barely into Olympia Fields.

"Another large
meteorite, just over 5 pounds, was found two blocks south of Lincoln Highway and
6-8 blocks west of Western.

"Several others in
the 1-to-2 pound range were found in northern Park Forest and in the south side
of Olympia Fields."

The meteorite shower
covered a three-mile diameter area of Park Forest, Matteson and Olympia Fields.
Three homes in Park Forest were damaged, along with the fire department.

There were no reports
of injuries, said Park Forest Police Capt. Francis DioGuardi. Police said about
60 pieces of space rocks have been turned in to the department.

In nearby Matteson,
there were reports that two homes were hit by meteorite pieces.

Experts have ruled out
speculation that the fragments may have been space debris.

Schwade believes the
meteor may have originated in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Ironically another
asteroid is now visible to the naked eye in the eastern sky. The asteroid 4
Vesta will be looping through the large constellation Virgo during the early
evening hours.

RENEWALS:

DON'T FORGET TO RENEW

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